Dance Moms promo
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Take a look at Dance Moms - the American reality TV show that follows the early careers of children in dance and show business, as well as the participation of their mothers.

news.com.au

28 Jul 2014

Entertainment

Star of the US show Dance Moms Abby Lee Miller (L) and Maddie Ziegler pictured at Randwick Racecourse where they held a dance master class for thousands of screaming tween fans. Picture: Toby ZernaSource: News Corp Australia

IT’S all teeth and claws — very, very white teeth, and very long French-manied claws — all the better to scratch your eyes out with right in front of our daughters. Or possibly to scratch your daughter’s soul out with so she doesn’t get picked for the place my daughter deserves.

There is thicker makeup than you’d see on My Big Fat Gypsy Wedding, more bitching in a single episode than in eight years’ worth of Dynasty, and more backstabbing and bad behaviour than in Real Housewives of Melbourne.

Welcome to Dance Moms and its spin-off Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition, the controversial reality shows that take catty, crappy parent antics to a whole new, terrifying, level. And that turn the teaching dance to girls into a Darwinian struggle in which only the strong survive.

If you don’t have Foxtel or a tiny dancer at home, you may have missed the phenomenon that has the Australian dance community, parents and girls, buzzing.

Dance Moms and Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition — which Australian dancers and their parents got a taste of in master classes at the weekend — are described as everything from “trainwreck TV” to “bullying on television” and “a form of torture” by parents here, many of whom say they don’t think it’s a healthy model to import here, a la Housewives.

Star of the US show Dance Moms Abby Lee Miller (L) and Maddie Ziegler pictured at Randwick Racecourse where they held a dance master class for thousands of screaming tween fans. Picture: Toby ZernaSource: News Corp Australia

Local dance mums are saying on Facebook and Twitter that the program, with its mothers yelling abuse in each-other’s faces (sometimes getting physical), putting other kids down, and fighting bitterly in front of distressed daughters, doesn’t resemble the local scene and sends bad messages to girls who dance.

The emphasis on appearance (in one clip a hideously nasty mother inquires of another woman’s young teen daughter “are you going to cut your real hair or your fake hair?” – to out her hair extensions), and on driving the best performance out of girls by just about driving them to the wall, are two issues that concern local dance parents.

Dance Moms are angry mums
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“I think these mothers are so intense because they failed at what they did — shoulda, woulda, coulda, but didn’t. They want to make sure their child fulfils their dreams,” she says.

Lee points to her solid record of launching young dancers’ careers but concedes some viewers consider her “needlessly mean”.

Some parents think her brutally honest approach with her charges may be damaging to girls. One parent told me she had to stop her seven year-old dance-competitor daughter watching it because she became very upset during an episode of Abby’s Ultimate Dance Competition:

“She couldn't understand why everyone was being so awful to each other, as her experience has been everyone patting each other on the back, lovely teachers and all parents supporting all kids involved. “

Another mum, Chaira, wrote on The Perch Facebook page:

“I worry my girls will worry that what they do is not good enough and that the way she speaks is acceptable.

Star of the US show Dance Moms Abby Lee Miller and Maddie Ziegler pictured at Randwick Racecourse where they held a dance master class for thousands of screaming tween fans. Maddie leads the master class in some stretches. Picture: Toby ZernaSource: News Corp Australia

“On the other hand, life is like that, and people tell you that you are not good enough even if you tried your best.”

Hilary says: “The poor kids are always in tears, and there is more bullying there than in Parliament (question) time. I don’t know how the authorities haven’t closed them down and it keeps being filmed and rating well.”

Some are scathing on the potential real impact of the way the programs depict acceptable adult behaviour: “This sets campaigns against bullying back into the Dark Ages … It is a shocking approval of women as ‘mothers’ being portrayed as idiots or bullies,” writes Fiona.

Kerryn writes: “I cannot stand how Abby Lee addresses the parents and children, resulting in kids crying. The horrible way they all talk to each other is frightening ... I would hate to think our Aussie kids and mums would subject themselves to this type of drama, Melbourne Housewives was enough for me!”

Other mums think if children are old enough to realise the awful way people relate is not acceptable, then the show is harmless enough.

Sarah says via Twitter: “We chat while watching the show and the girls (competitive dancers in the Australian girls’ scene) are equally perplexed by Abby’s behaviour and by the mums who allow their children to be shamed all in the name of dance.

“They enjoy watching the performance side, but it’s a great way as a parent to demonstrate that to be good at a skill, like dance, you (and your parent) don’t have to sacrifice who you are along the way.

“It makes the kids appreciate the way they are taught, with precision but with kindness.” I guess that is one good thing.

What do you think of the show Dance Moms? Tell us in the comments below.

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